Fitzroy Crossing and beyond on a whim.
Packed paints and brushes. Set out to paint whatever in the Never Never with canvases as blank and yet open as my mind. To paint and stretch those wings.

Headed off on the melting tarmac to the Never Never. 111.2F/44.C = hot.
The black soon turns into red dirt. The same Kimberley red dirt that fills up your nostrils and gets under your skin. Finding yourself longing for this wide open country as soon as your gone.

Flocks of screeching cockatoos make our arrival known at Geikie Gorge.

Ten rock wallabies bound like graceful ballerinas across the path. The rocks we walk amongst are 350 million years old, that’s pretty old.

We set out to wade through Tunnel Creek. You can walk 750 metres through cool pools watching for bats and the stalactites that hang from the roof. Our flashlights go flat, but not before seeing fresh slide prints of a croc. Have you any idea how pitch black it is in there? There is never adjusting to dark this dark.

The Fitzroy River is dry sand. Crocodiles wait for the big wet. One little poke in the great big gray bugger of clouds and all will be released. It’s hard to imagine in flood, the river becomes one of the world’s biggest. Roads can be closed for weeks at a time. It’s here in the sand that we light a fire and cook the cherabin.

The ‘69,’70,‘71 Cliffside Park High School Reunion…
Jim Morrison and The Doors blasting out the car windows to get us in the mood. It was good back then and it’s all good now.

Natural to be apprehensive about revisiting ones past. It’s not for the feint hearted. There’s ghosts, ex-pashes and of course those awkward moments of adolescence come flooding right back. Trying to recognize people with nametags so miniscule, that you just had to take their word for it who they were and still are. Some sweet and some scary.

Wished for a moment that at 9am the following Monday morning, the school bell would ring, and we could all walk up the down staircase again.

Frané Lessac Class of ‘72

Finalllly, it’s public knowledge. The champagne fizzed and popped weeks ago, but I was sworn to secrecy. I’ve been yippy-yi-yaying and waa-woo-hooing behind closed doors.

Being on the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year shortlist was the ultimate accolade. That meant everything to me. And eh, how lovely of Walker Books to fly us to Sea World on the Gold Coast to receive Honour Book at the award ceremony. Our editor Sue Whiting met us at the airport at 6:10am. Working with Sue, an author herself, made us better at our craft. When most editors would say ‘that’s good enough”, Sue takes it to the next level of perfection in both the words and the art. Just wait and see what we three have created for “Ned Kelly and the Green Sash” April 2010 release…
As soon as we arrived, you can guess the winners by the coincidental appearance of one’s peers.

It was hard for me to be contained within the awards ceremony with honking sea lions, fluffy polar bears and dolphins flip-flapping just around the corner.

Flying into the Kadjina Community is like being dropped into a storybook. A small cluster of houses snuggle up against the rugged Saint Georges Range - Kalikita.

These are my 2 new friends Alvina and Surayiah. We spend each morning creating picture books and in the afternoons we go bush. To the brown brown billabong, past the dry sandy riverbed and to the top of the “girl hill” where we tell porkypie lies and draw on rocks and giggle a lot.

Yee haw!
Here’s a book trailer Laura Melmed created of our new book now on youtube: Click me.

Here’s the blurb:
Welcome to Texas—home of cowboys, cattle, and NASA—where “Friendship” is the motto folks live by. Remember the Alamo, where a brave Army fought against Santa Anna; visit Big Bend National Park and try to spot a Bear; and go to the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame to discover the women who Conquered the Old West. Celebrate Texas in this alphabetical tour from Laura Krauss Melmed and Frané Lessac, the bestselling duo who brought us Capital! Washington D.C. from A to Z and New York, New York! The Big Apple from A to Z.

With a treasure trove of facts and bright, bold art, this rootin’-tootin’, rip-roarin’ tribute to the Lone Star State will have readers shouting “Yee-haw!”

Take 25 children’s book authors and illustrators. Throw them on an idyllic island for the weekend. Add lotsa wine and good food. Share ideas and grow new ones. What could be better. That was the first annual West Australian Society of Children’s Book Writer’s and Illustrators Rottnest Island Retreat.

We shared stories, some ancient, some fantasyastic, others spooky and even some silly.

We learned allll about the Google Settlement and we now understand everything☺. Zoe Rodriquez from CAL - Copyright Agency Limited steamed over for the day. Zoe and I snuck away for a bicycle ride around the island.

We travelled to the remote reaches of the island and were warned.

Beware: venomous snakes, crumbling walls of rock, and lack of water. Oh yes, we’re the adventurous type.

We laughed, giggled and sang.
We danced all night in the dust and sand.
We ate, drank and were merry.
We wrote and rewrote.
We drew and redrew.
The three amigos below are a force to be reckoned with. Publishers take note! Be quick! They coolly and sweetly ooze with original talent. Commission them for a project before one of your colleagues snatches them right up before your very eyes. They’re the loveliest bunch. I made fun that they were dressed for Antarctica and it was me of course who froze.

I should be feeling way more ecstatic with the artwork for Ned Kelly and the Green Sash finished. Instead, I feel like someone I just got to know intimately, passed on. What I’m left with is a mere interlude of paintings that cover his short life.

For the moment he’s preciously packed away in my studio drawer.
I await the signal, then he’ll depart, alone, across the Nullabor. Perhaps he’ll fittingly pass through Kelly country. He’d laugh his head off at that.

Living and breathing, yet not coming up for air. Locked in, from the inside of my studio to finish Ned Kelly and the Green Sash.
Painting a character like Ned Kelly, is a bit like cloning him.
I always knew I’d be anxious in bringing him back to life. Would I be sympathetic to his legendary fate. Would I mourn his short life.
While I create the art, I constantly think of Ned’s last words written in his cell the day before he was hung. “After the worst has been said against a man, he may, if he is heard, tell a story in his own rough way”. This is permission from Ned himself for authors and artists, but mostly for me, to paint his story in my own rough way.

Round the world in 18 daze.
Watching all types of wings take off at JFK, fixed & feathered. FAA release data this week on bird strikes, JFK Airport listed as worst in U.S.   This is very reassuring as I board soon, flying over the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge.

London…. Astley’s on Thames. Jon cooked the Sunday roast in the Aga, as he does. A good chunk of my heart belongs to Jude. Check out Judy Astley’s books, Billy Nicholls and Jon Astley’s musical endeavors.

Celebrated my Dad’s 85th Birthday. He’s the greatest man alive!
His secret to long and happy life is wine, cake and chocolate.

Sahara
Waves upon waves of sand conjure up childhood visions of endless dunes, quicksand, an oasis, nomads, and camels. All is realized. The emptiness of the desert is fulfilling. A Nomad with 64 camels offers only 4 for me. We’ll wait for a better deal. Ancient Kasbahs sit in lush valleys of date palms. For the people here, life is without want and need is little.

Fez
Veils of the city are peeled back, layer upon layer, exposing life unchanged for hundreds of years. Young men loiter aimlessly, harassing the tourist with map in hand, lost in the old Medina’s labyrinth. One must hold fresh mint to the nose to survive the smell of the tanneries. Donkeys trot past laden with goods. Fez can steal your heart away.

Surrounds
Storks build giant nests atop the minarets on mosques. Facing Mecca, they await the call to prayer.